THE DIGITAL PAGE - Weekly guide to entertainment technology.

Beyond 'Halo' 'GTA'

Two successful launches help set the bar for the holiday season

In its first day of release last week, Microsoft's hotly anticipated Xbox game "Halo 2" sold 2.4 million units to eager gamers in North America, Microsoft reported, earning $125 million.

Microsoft was quick to crow that this was the biggest 24 hours this year in entertainment retail, noting that, technically, "Halo 2" brought in more in a single day than animation behemoth Pixar's "The Incredibles" did in its $70.5 million opening weekend.

That's something Microsoft should be pleased with, but remember that movie tickets top out at $10 or so while "Halo 2" admission price is $50, or $55 if you pick up the collector's edition of the game, which is shipped in a tin with a bonus disc.

While Sony may have ushered video games into mainstream pop culture with the original PlayStation, it seems that Microsoft has perfected turning a simple video game launch into a cultural event. A very lucrative cultural event.

Microsoft's marketing campaign was as monstrous as the Covenant, the rampaging alien race "Halo's" Master Chief must halt before they extinguish mankind throughout the galaxy. A Web-based puzzle game linking sites such as www.ilovebees.com served as the viral, word-of-mouth thread, while Microsoft printed ads in every enthusiast magazine, ran a healthy number of television spots, and unspooled trailers in movie theaters leading up to the Nov. 9 release date.

Couple this with the heavy breathing of video game Web site editors, and the entire affair was almost overwhelming. "You couldn't help but feel as if you were missing out if you weren't waiting in line at midnight to pick up your copy," says PeerSchneider, network director of IGN.com, a popular Web destination for gamers.

"Halo 2's" highly public success further legitimizes the Xbox as a major player in the video game scene, even though the machine lags far behind Sony's PlayStation 2 in sales. By Microsoft's estimates, there are approximately 16 million Xboxes in play around the world, compared with 72 million PlayStation 2s.

But milestone games such as "Halo 2" may set the stage for Microsoft to gain ground when the next hardware generation rolls out, presumably in late 2005 or early 2006.

"`Halo 2,' like the original, ends with a cliffhanger and I'll give you one guess as to where it continues," says Andy McNamara, editor in chief of Game Informer Magazine, alluding to an inevitable "Halo 3" on the next Xbox system.

"Halo 2" isn't the only game in town at the start of this holiday season. In October, Rockstar Games released "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" exclusively for the PlayStation 2.

Rockstar Games often keeps its sales figures close to its chest, but many analysts peg the game to beat the last "GTA" title, "Vice City," which has sold more than 7 million units in North America.

The "GTA" brand has already entered the zeitgeist, so Rockstar didn't feel the need for the bells and whistles of the "Halo 2" debut. "You weren't told about GTA launching," Schneider says. "You just knew about it."

"Halo 2" and "San Andreas," however, are not direct competitors -- they are exclusive to different systems -- and likely will not cannibalize each other's sales. "It's every other game and game company that has to worry about the combined power of these two titles on the marketplace," McNamara says. After spending $50 on "San Andreas" and $50 on "Halo 2" (and perhaps even $150 on an Xbox to play "Halo 2"), will there be any attention -- and money -- left for other triple-A titles, such as Nintendo's "Metroid Prime 2" or Sony's "Jak 3"?

Right now, only one thing is clear: Microsoft and Rockstar should be planning for a very merry Christmas.